Monthly Archives: August 2009
There is a lot of chatter out there focusing on the possibility of a new Apple Tablet being announced at Apple’s next media event on September 9, 2009.Will Apple launch a tablet computer?Does it make sense for Apple to do so?Let’s look at the current state of the market for computing devices:Many companies and individuals have recently made the switch from desktop computers to laptop computersYet, still IDC forecasts laptops like the Apple Macbook to represent only 55% of worldwide sales in 2009People are only now beginning to make the switch from dumb phones to smartphones in earnestYet in Q4 2008, only 23% of handsets sold in the USA were smartphones like the Apple iPhone (according to NPD group)Netbooks are currently the hot computing categoryMobile operators in many countries charge by the device for Internet accessAdding an Apple Tablet would likely add $60/month to a mobile phone bill in the … Continue reading
In biology, there’s an old saying: “Growth is the only evidence of life”. A lot of investors on Wall Street seem to echo these words when they evaluate today’s corporations – and business leaders are getting the message. At GE, for example, CEO Jeff Immelt is on the hook to deliver an incredible 8% of organic growth each year. This represents around $15 billion of new revenue – equivalent to the combined annual revenue of America’s entire bookstore industry, or fitness industry, or music production and distribution industry! No wonder “Driving Growth” has become today’s dominant management mantra, not just at GE but at companies all over the world.Yet if we go back to biology for a moment, we realize that there is more subtlety to organic growth than we may have previously imagined. In fact, we find out that life actually requires two very different kinds of growth.The first … Continue reading
I was pondering recently why it can be so hard for a large firm to innovate successfully. Too often it seems we are trying to graft an innovation capability or process on top of existing teams and workflows. While these grafted processes can work effectively for a short time, while the white hot focus of management is felt, often these grafted processes wither and die if not constantly renewed and refreshed. Then it hit me. I’d just finished reading and reviewing “Design Driven Innovation” by Roberto Verganti. His thesis is that innovation should be driven, even led, by design. Innovation efforts often feel grafted on because the organization is working as it was designed to.Many of my larger clients are Fortune 1000 firms that have well defined business teams and processes. After a round of Total Quality Management, Six Sigma and Lean in the 80s and 90s, these processes and … Continue reading
I recently came across an interesting quote from Michael Schumacher, the seven-time Formula One champion. He said, “To perfect things, speed is a unifying force. To imperfect things, speed is a destructive force.”Business, like auto racing, is a world of imperfect things. Always has been. But as the pace of change continues to increase, both the danger and the likelihood of a company hitting the wall grow exponentially greater. Strategic mistakes that in the past might have required a pit stop now could be fatal. A lot of companies are learning this the hard way during the protracted downturn. We’ve all read about Lehman Brothers, GM and Washington Mutual, but a number of lower profile yet still well-known names have also joined the bankruptcy club, including Six Flags, Crunch Gym and Nortel. According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, business bankruptcies in the first half of 2009 are 64 percent higher … Continue reading
by Kevin RobertsIf guilt is the gift that keeps on giving, here’s an easy way to break its grip. We’re all aware of the things that we can be doing to improve society, the community, the environment – but frequently we don’t get around to activating this desire, usually because it involves sacrifice or getting around some inconvenience.Recycling is one thing that’s easiest enough to do, yet we don’t recycle as much or as often as we could. Eighty percent of all garbage is recyclable, yet the average residential recycling rate is less than 20 percent. Recycling saves cities millions of dollars in landfill and disposal fees, saves trees from the paper mill, and even millions of gallons of oil from use.Some point this as a result of problems in the infrastructure of cities or simply that it’s not convenient enough to do. Some of our cities are better placed … Continue reading
Adam Hartung, Managing Partner of Spark Partners, a strategy and transformation consultancy, asked this question on LinkedIn:”Do you think “Tide Basic,” a less-good formulation, is an innovation? Isn’t innovation about making things better and cheaper, not just cheaper?”The genesis of the question is a story in the Wall Street Journal describing why P&G recently rolled out Tide Basic. Tide Basic “lacks some of the cleaning capabilities of the iconic brand – and costs about 20% less.” As the article notes, Tide’s historic posture is to improve the laundry detergent continuously. It gets better every year. And the price does go up as well. The decision to go down-market didn’t come easily.Much of this is reminiscent of Clayton Christensen’s analysis of the steel industry. In that story, low-cost mini mills ultimately led to the demise of the big, integrated steel mills.Reflecting on that, here’s how I answered Adam’s question on LinkedIn:”Conceptually, … Continue reading
